Shelley Lubben's Pink Cross Scam Gets More Exposure...Plus, How AHF, Shelley, and UCLA Almost Pulled Off An "Ambush"

OK...just when you thought things couldn't get more whack concerning the UCLA "conference" on condoms in porn, more facts come piling on.

A blogger named Cameron Rowe has now published what he calls an expose on Shelley Lubben and her organization, The Pink Cross Foundation, basically building on the work of former porn performer Julie Meadows (aka Lydia Lee) in exposing the shadier and slightly less friendly shadows of that org. The first two parts dealt with Lubben's credentials as a porn performer (she lists 30 movies to her credit, but others have reduced that number to only 12); and her creds as a minister (her degree allegedly comes from a "diploma mill" that was once banned and sanctioned in the state of Conneticut, and her ordination is from a group that mostly consists of a "mail drop").

Part 3 goes more into the financial nuts and bolts of the PCF, and it relies heavily on the publically disclosed 2008 and 2009 Federal tax returns that PCF filed in order to maintaiin their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status as a non-profit charitable organization. A sample of Rowe's findings:

 A charity website and a commercial website are not supposed to be a marriage due to IRS rules. However, thepinkcross.net redirects to shelleylubben.com, but only thepinkcross.org is listed on the tax return. On thepinkcross.org, some article does link to shelleylubben’s website and her new book.  Shelley Lubben’s bio on thepinkcross.org does link to her site. 

[...]

The big item on this tax return is that Shelley Lubben took $24,250 in compensation, which is 37.6% of gross receipts. It is the single biggest expense. The charity spent an extremely large $1,971 on financial assistance and gift cards, which is 3.1% of gross receipts. So, based on their accounting, 96.9% was spent on administration.

The better business bureau (BBB) recommends no more than 35% of gross receipts spend on Line 14, 15 of a 990 tax return. The federal government recommends, under CFC (Combined Federal Campaign), only 25%. So, 37.6% is above both the BBB and CFC. Some new charities can be higher if administration and fundraising goes over that percentage. The tax return does not say how much was spent on fundraising.

[....]

The Pink Cross Foundation did lobbying last year but on Section IV, Question 4, they said they didn’t. This is a lie and if they did they have to fill out a Schedule C should be completed and is open to public inspection. This allows the IRS to determine of a charity can retain a 501(c)(3) status. It is known they tried to influence legislation, attended a California subcommittee, or committee, on that proposed legislation. Failure to fill out this form by lying and saying no lobbying was performed could cost them their 501(c)(3) status. Also, if you spend more than 20% of your gross receipts on lobbying, you may have to pay a tax or lose tax-exempt status.

Use of volunteers, mailings, advertising, direct contact with legislators, has to be accounted for on Schedule C. The Pink Cross Foundation did mail at least one legislator since I remember seeing the document. The video of the hearing did have at least one volunteer.

This is a red flag. Of course, if the IRS claimed, “Tax evasion”, Garrett Lubben is responsible since he was listed as the person supposed to sign it. It is interesting the tax return with lies on it wasn’t signed by the President, Shelley Lubben. The 2008 return she signed. On the return, Ms. Lubben claims to be the “president” but is “executive director” on their website. Which is it?

[...]

Does thepinkcross.net belong to Pink Cross or Shelley Lubben? The website address does redirect to shelleylubben.com. According to WHOIS, ownership is hidden. Pink Cross does not appear to be trademarked so this could be legal. However, it really should go to thepinkcross.org not her personal website just for reasons that there is no conflict of interest between a commercial endeavor and a charitable one.

Rowe also hits hard and deep on the PCF's alleged assistance to those former porn performers seeking help getting out. Citing Julie Meadows' revelations on the so-called "Recovery Assistance Program" application, Rowe essentially asks the same questions that Julie and yours truly asked when this first was exposed:

Why not just tell someone up-front you can’t provide something? Most of this they aren’t providing in full anyway. This is a draconian program. Get a job and we’ll help. Give up any money porn owes you or we won’t. So, you got screwed by porn and have to give up the pay? Pardon the pun. Or, and you will be accountable to some mentor of Pink Cross. What does Pink Cross do if you have a spouse in porn but you only want to leave? No idea.

The application also wants your real name, driver’s license, porn star name/names, SSN (why exactly?), DOB, address, know if you are eligible to work in the United States, and know if you have been convicted or pleaded guilty to a felony in the past five (5) years. Needing a copy of your SSN card before they approve you isn’t right. They also want to know what that felony it was as well.

Apparently Shelley and the PCF never heard of the HIPPA law..except when they throw it at AIM when they want to release porn performers' medical records to the authorities for their own purposes.

There is so much more over at Rowe's blog...it makes for a fascinating and troublesome read.

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The second big news is that Shelley did manage to post her reassessment of her appearance at the UCLA "condoms in porn" conference.  Needless to say, her version had some interesting deviations from most other's recollection of that debacle.

But before that, we get this from Michael Whiteacre on how the UCLA conference sponsors attempted to cook the debate in their favor by ambusing their critics (posted earlier as a response to my earlier post here):

The organizers of the UCLA School of Law panel ACTIVELY PLOTTED to keep adult industry members away, and I can attest that it is true. This event was not promoted at all. Google and Yahoo searches turned up nothing. I stumbled upon a reference to it in the calendar on Shelley Lubben’s site two days before the event. She listed the name of the event, the location, and gave the start time as 11:00 am. I passed the info on to Free Speech Coalition, and Diane Duke essentially “bullied” her way onto the panel. FSC also alerted AVN. The next day (the day before the event) AVN mentioned the event, and it also popped up on Darrah Ford's blog (listing the start time, correctly, as 11:30 am).

Shelley Lubben must have been told to not promote the event, because after FSC (and AVN) called over to the organizers, citing Shelley’s website as how they heard about it, the start time on Shelley’s site was mysteriously ALTERED to 2:00 pm (which is 50 minutes after he event had to end so that a scheduled class could use the room). That altered start time is still on her website as I write this. I must conclude they called her to complain, and Shelley’s instinct, as usual, was to distort the truth. She takes a kernel of truth, and then twists it to serve her needs.

This panel was plotted as a way for a cabal of likeminded interests to add another all-star meeting to their roster, try out their propaganda on a small test audience, and hopefully get a few quotes to use for self promotion. That I helped out them, and take the fight to them, is a badge of honor for me. But the real praise belongs to Mr. Marcus and Diane Duke, who knowingly walked into a turkey shoot.

Lubben's take on the event was, shall we say, just a bit different. Some excerpts, taken from a comment left at Julie Meadows' blog this morning:

“When questioned on how she knew these consequences came from porn and not her six years of prostitution before she entered porn, Lubben replied, “I never had STDs until I did porn. I had protected sex as a prostitute. I didn’t do as hard of (sex) acts in prostitution. I never did anal until I got to porn.” Although Lubben states unequivocally that prostitution is still horrible, porn is worse.”

“Diane Duke of the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) who was there on behalf of the producers defended the industry’s current testing system as ‘remarkable’ but it was pointed out that testing ‘does not prevent anything.’ Current porn star Mr. Marcus, a 17 year veteran of the industry who has appeared in over 50 gangbang movies and who is known for his brutal acts in porn, showed up to defend the industry – yet in a meeting that was filled with testimony of violence against women and damage to the reproductive health of women, it was hardly convincing.”

“No other porn performers showed up to defend the industry – which is the norm for public debates. Why do porn actors rarely show up? There have been several state and local meetings in the last two years and yet only a handful of porn stars have ever showed up. Mainly producers and lawyers for the industry show up at these meetings. Why is that?

“Mr. Marcus spoke of a need for ‘more education’ in the industry. We agree on that point. No woman should go into porn on the false promise that they will be kept safe, or that the porn industry is concerned about the health and safety of their employees. They say they are, but their actions speak otherwise. Just two weeks ago, Diane Duke wrote an article in the adult industry trade magazine titled, “FSC: On the Forefront of Fighting for Your Bottom Line.”

“Who is fighting for the health and safety of these people? Certainly not the industry. But we will! Not only that, Pink Cross demands that the entire industry be shutdown until it is in compliance with state law. The current workplace health and safety laws must be enforced. The porn industry is currently operating illegally. We also know that the porn industry is full of rampant disease and thrives on illegal activity such as drug trafficking, prostitution and brutality against women.”

I really don't know what's funnier or more pathetic: Lubben attempting to spin the deliberate attempt to stone her critics as a legitimate debate; her slanderous attack on Mr. Marcus as "known for his brutal acts in porn", as if his real reputation as one of the most woman-friendly and pro-pleasure performers means nothing at all; or, her smack about porn being a haven for "drug trifficking, prostitution, and brutality against women"....and full of "rampant disease", completely discounting her own history as sex worker who regularly practiced unsafe and possibly illegal sex practices on her own both before and after her short lived career as a porn actress.

Of course, this is the same Shelley Lubben who regularly  blows out faked-up stats like "90% of all women in porn are diseased and prostituted" and who gleefully prints nonsense like "[..] ...porn starlet Nina Hartley, whom has contracted clamydia 4 times in her career....' ; as if her 12 videos and the backing of "God" can overcome 26 YEARS and actual activism for safer sex and authentic women's pleasure.

Oh...and Shelley??  Nina's bachelors degree in nursing from San Francisco State is REAL. Don't hate.

The Great HIV Porn Scare: All Bark, No Bite...Again (Also, Exposing Shelley Lubben's Fraudulent Scam)

I am so sorry that I couldn't get to this when all the drama originally took place...but I was preoccupied with other things.

But, now that it seems that yet another supposed HIV pandemic in porn has been proven to be total nonsense and greatly overhyped, I guess that it's now time to serve some crow to some people.

For those who may not have noted, last July the California porn world was in total chaos because it was leaked that one of their performers had tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That set off all the usual hysteria, with porn sets shut down while all the primary and secondary sex partners of the poor afflicted performer (dubbed as "Patient Zets") were tested as per normal procedure by the Adult Industry Medical Foundation, which is basically the official testing organization for the California-based porn industry.

Unfortunately, because this latest scare took place only one year after a similar panic when a female performer was tested positive; the flameout in rhetoric was even more extrreme, with most signs pointing to the breach of the system as the final proof they needed to condemn AIM and promote alternatives...up to and including mandatory condoom usage by all porn performers. Even worse, though, was that "Patient Zeta" also was reported to be a bisexual male who performed gay porn on the side...which added the additional spark of homophobia into the mix as well.

Not surprisingly, plenty of the usual suspects took to the airwaves to decry this ultimate failure of the system. The officios at the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) mined the latest "outbreak" news to reinstated their position that porn sets needed to be fully regulated and performers forced to use condoms as a means of protection and "role modeling" the general public. The biggest and loudest voice, though, came from a group called the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whose founder and chief spokesman, Michael Weinstein, had long been a fierce foe of AIM and its alleged "monopoly" on STI testing and protection. Weinstein used his microphome and his organization to publically attempt to humiliate AIM and force the LA and Cali authorities to seize power and force mandatory condom usage (and his own testing regime) on the industry carte blanche, citing the potential for a major pandemic among porn performers.

And it would have probably worked, too....except for one small problem.  The pandemic never happened.


Like it didn't happen last year, either.

One month after the Great 2010 HIV Porn Scare began, it ended....with a whimper.

In a not-unexpected announcement today, Vivid Entertainment, one of the world's leading adult producers, said that it is set to resume movie production on Monday, November 8, after being shut down for almost a month because of health safety concerns.

The move was apparently triggered by the announcement yesterday from the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation that the final actress who could possibly have contracted HIV from the performer now known as "Patient Zeta" has been cleared after the second round of PCR-DNA testing, and has been allowed to resume her acting career.

"The Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation has completed testing of two generations of partners of Patient Zeta, from both personal and professional life," AIM General Manager Jennifer Miller said today. "All persons tested negative for HIV on two occasions, using multiple testing methods. It has been established that Patient Zeta acquired the virus through private, personal activity and there was no transmission of the HIV virus from Patient Zeta to anyone else."

"This event affirms the efficacy of AIM Healthcare Foundation’s testing protocols, as voluntarily implemented by the adult entertainment industry," she continued. "It is regrettable but inevitable that people continue to acquire the HIV virus in their personal life. The protocols and other industry practices have resulted in only one incident of HIV transmission on set in more than a decade. That is a remarkable record. AIM Healthcare Foundation is proud of its contribution to the health and well-being of the adult industry and wider community."

Of course, the fact that their dreams of exploiting the "outbreak" for political purposes had been dashed by actual facts weren't going to stop the "push condoms" and "smash AIM" folks from fighting the not-so-good fight. In the midst of the crisis, when it was still possible that things could get hairy, Weinstein's group AHF and the Cal-OSHA people were quite busy attempting to impose their will. They unsuccessfully attempted to browbeat the Los Angeles Metro City Council to suspend all licenses for shooting porn in the Greater LA area. They attempted -- just as unsuccessfully -- to use the courts to force AIM to reveal the identities of "Patient Zeta" and all of her partners through their confidential medical records...while simultaneaously claiming that having AIM release the results of their testing to porn production companies violeted the HIPPA law regarding public release of private medical records.

But mostly, they attempted to use the media to browbeat the industry into submissiveness. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for us), their delivery system was more than a bit flawed.

Which brings us one more time to that ongoing saga of: Shelley Lubben, Off The Chain.

Yes, our favorite ex-porn, ex-slut ministress is on her soapbox again. Apparently, the folks at AHF have decided that Shelley Lubben should become the official voice for those poor, benighted, abused, diseased, prostituted, and infected women unfortunate enough not to be able to speak for themselves against the Big, Bad Male Porn Grinding Machine. At least, those women for whom her Pink Cross Foundation ministry exploits greatly to pay for all of her makeup and travel....errrrrrrrrrrrr, to minister the glory of God and save them from a hard and brutal life.

Now, one would normally wonder how an agency like AHF who originates atourn advocacy for HIV+ folk -- many of whom happen to be gay men -- would be doing sharing the dais with the likes of Ministress Lubben, whose ministry does seem to have more than a glancing taste of the homophobia. When big money in presumed federal contracts to prooffer testing services supplemented by the potential payoff in condom sales from folks like Durex and Trojan, combines with Shelley's continuous desire for the public spotlight and a nice book deal....well, let's just say that greed makes for strange bedfellows.

The problem is, though, that giving someone as whack as Shelley Lubben the microphone is a dangerous thing. Ask the people at UCLA.

Just this week, they decided to hold what they considered a roundtable discussion on the issue of STI's in porn and the effectiveness of condoms and whether they should be mandated. Representing the "condoms must be mandatory" side: Paula Tavrow of the UCLA School of Public Health, Whitney Engeran-Cordova of AHF, Peter Kerndt of the LA County Health STD program, and Shelley Lubben as "one of the world's leading advocates for women in the adult industry". (More on that lie anon.) Repping the other side: Mr. Marcus, long time Black male porn legend and.....Diane Duke of the Free Speech Coalition. (The latter was a late add to make the panel seem less "fair and balanced".)

Yes, this panel was about as balanced as a FOX News Sunday panel discussion....and Shelley was on her Michelle Bachmann-caliber finest tear that day. Michael Whiteacre was at the conference, and just so happened to videotape some of Lubben's special whackiness. First, the written synopsis, courtesy of AVN:

Lubben, whose website hawks her new book allegedly based on her brief experiences in the industry, and who asked her supporters for their "fervent prayers" about her appearance on the panel, spoke next, and much of what she said was laced with her usual inaccuracies and outright fabrications.

"I worked in the industry in the years 1993 to 1994," she told the audience. "I was forced to have unprotected sex." (See, she chose to work in the industry, but she was forced to have unprotected sex, though she must have known that virtually no companies shot condom porn in the early '90s.)

Lubben launched into a long list of medical problems she claims stemmed from her brief porn career (as opposed to her years working as a prostitute) and also claimed she was "brutally raped on the set when I contacted herpes in a six-man gangbang." (This would have been Filmco's Roxy – A Gang Bang Fantasy, but of course, Lubben never filed rape charges against anyone connected with that movie.)

"Women on the set have no advocate on a mostly male set, and are threatened by porn producers and agents," she continued. "In order to get women to agree to these things, they're given alcohol and drugs and even sent to local doctors to get prescription medicine like Xanax and Vicodin... All this is documented proof."

To accompany her talk, Lubben also made available several handouts, one of which references notorious gossip and liar Luke Ford, who collected industry-bashing quotes from several actresses prior to his leaving the porn-gossip business several years ago. Yet another handout, titled "Backgrounder," contains lies such as that "90% [of porn employees] are child sexual abuse survivors," "66% to 99% of pornography performers are reported with Herpes, a non-curable disease," and "25 HIV cases by performers reported by Adult Industry Medical Healthcare since 2004."

And in case you need the visual to match.... (thank you, Michael Whiteacre):

Former porn performer turned fundamentalist Christian anti-porn activist Shelley Lubben addressing the UCLA "Condoms in Porn" discussion (via YouTube, h/t MichaelWhiteacre)

There are facts...and then there are Lubben Facts. The Free Speech Coalition website post on the UCLA meeting clearly explains the difference.

In fact, the audience could have learned a lot about sexually transmitted infections from the panelists today. Instead, the focus was on statistics for adult industry performers that LACPH has “gathered” from Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM), since the AIM clinic is required to share data with the county. But how many people in the audience recalled that last year, after a performer was diagnosed with HIV, that LACPH claimed, since 2004, there have been as many as 22 cases of HIV in the performing population? The LA Times later retracted the statistic, presumably because it’s not verifiable. But by then, it was too late to stop the spread of misinformation.

No one on the panel spoke more about STIs than Pink Cross’ Lubben, who issued a laundry list of diseases that she claims she contracted “while working in porn,” including herpes, HPV, as well as “extensive reproductive damage,” 12 years of hemorrhaging and severe anemia, due to unprotected sex that she was forced to have on adult production sets. She used the word “rape” liberally to describe her on-set experiences. She also claimed to have contracted HPV during a gangbang shoot with four male performers. Lubben also claims that 66% of adult performers have herpes and that 111 adult industry members have died from AIDS – without citing the statistical sources for this information.

When an audience member forced the question to Lubben, that she had been a prostitute for six years prior to being in her first adult movie (and during her time as a performer, and after she retired from performing), Lubben replied that she had always had “protected sex” as a prostitute, but was “forced” to not use a condom on-set.

Well, here are some FACTS about various STIs from the Centers for Disease Control website:

• Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is so common, at least 50% of sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.

• For those that choose to be sexually active, condoms may lower the risk of HPV… But HPV can infect areas not covered with a condom – so condoms may not fully protect against HPV.

• Results of a nationally representative study show that genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, 16.2%, or about one out of six, people 14 to 49 years of age have genital HSV-2 infection.

And that’s the thing – the only way to fight ignorance is with facts.

Yeah, right...and Nina Hartley "contracted chalmydia four times during her career". Of 26 years. (That's more YEARS than you have SCENES, Shelley. Almost TWICE AS MANY, in fact. Scoreboard sucks, doesn't it??) At, least, that's what Ministress Shelley says. I mean, clearly a woman who has performed all of 24....no, check that, 12 videos in one nine month blitz, and who was an active prostitute who has openly claimed in other venues to have unprotected sex and bave contracted everything BUT HIV from her prostitution endevors, is clearly more capable for speaking for all women in porn than a 24 year vet who happens to have a Bachelors degree in nursing, and whom has written several books and made many videos on safer sex and avoiding STI's. Yeah, Shelley...Nina's your bitch, all right.

Oh, but let's save that potential Hartley vs. Lubben ass kicking (figurative, that is) for a future fantasy. Right now,  porn women with even half of Nina's legacy can still run world laps around Shelley, and still have enough wind to boot her illogical, fanatical ass into orbit. While I've previously mentioned Monica Foster and Kayden Kross and Vicky Vette who have thouroughly debunked the stupidity and outright lies and slander of the Ministeress, it is still Julie Meadows (aka Lydia Lee) whom has done the most in public service in exposing the rancid lies of Shelley Lubben to the bright light of sunshine. Today in her blog, Julie fires yet one more Truth volley into the Lubben House of Bullshit, using Shelley's own words to impale. It started as a comment to the FSC site, then exploded into a blog entry at Meadows' own  blog. I'll simply repost it in its magnificent entirity.

“Shelley Lubben’s website from “Way Back Time Machine” 2008:
http://www.shelleylubben.com/former-porn-star-shelley-lubben

“God also restored my femininity and healed my sexuality, which is a MAJOR miracle for me. After doing prostitution and porn I lost ability to function sexually. The fact that I can enjoy a healthy sexual relationship now is an absolute miracle!! God also healed me of the non-curable disease herpes. I was part of a special military study for pregnant women with herpes in 1996 and when I was tested they said I couldn’t be in the study because there was no herpes virus in my blood. The test came back negative! I also am cancer free as the doctors were able to remove all the cervical cancer. He’s Jehovah-Rophe the God that heals us!”

YouTube – “EX-PORN STAR SHELLEY LUBBEN, THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FANTASY OF PORN – PORNHARMS.COM BRIEFING”, Uploaded June 17, 2010

“As a survivor of the porn industry, I contracted human papillomavirus, and herpes, a non-curable disease, which later led to my battle with cervical cancer, where I had to have half of my cervix removed. I also battled with severe anemia due to the hemorrhaging I experienced for twelve years. In fact, I’m still battling with damages to my reproductive organs.”

YouTube – “JESUS SWOOPS DOWN ON HOWARD STERN: EX PORN STAR SHELLEY LUBBEN VISITS 2/2”, Uploaded November 9, 2010

“Shelley Lubben: God told me he healed me and I haven’t had an outbreak in over fifteen years, my kids are herpes-free, so, you know what, I just turned to God and he healed me in all these areas of my life. I mean, he’s practical.”

Shelley Lubben: Of course. Like, you could, you could swing a deal anywhere. Any, literally, and uh… and then one, and then this man, he, he um, he bled on my face and it really frightened me, so… um…
Robin Quivers: Bled on your face? How does that, wha?
Howard Stern: He bled on your face? What was, what was that about?
SL: Well, I don’t know. All I know was it scared the hell outta me.
HS: Where was the blood coming from?
SL: His penis.

Howard Stern: Uh, an Asian guy banged you for money, got you pregnant. How did that happen, his rubber break or something?
Shelley Lubben: In all honesty, um, it did. Condoms will leak and break.
HS: Right.
SL: And I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve had plenty of sex to know that condoms aren’t enough protection but they’re better than no protection.

YouTube – “SHELLEY LUBBEN SPEAK TRUTH ABOUT PORN INDUSTRY”
Uploaded June 4, 2008

“And, as you know in the industry we do not, there’s not, we don’t use condoms. And so, every single day we live in fear that we’re going to catch a sexually transmitted disease or worse, HIV. Everyday we lived, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, who slept with who?’ And um, I got burned. I caught genital herpes and I thought I was going to die. It’s absolutely the worst thing, it’s the most shameful… I had dealt with so much shame already. This was terrible. And I quietly left the porn industry.”

“I slept with Hollywood directors, actors, singers, I helped contribute to America’s epidemic of herpes. 66% of porn actors and actresses are carriers. 28% have chlamydia and gonorrhea and 7% have HIV. It’s a huge problem. And what we do is when we’re porn stars we’re also prostitutes. We fly around the country and sleep with people for lots of money because they’re our fans. And so then we have unprotected sex with them, of course.”

YouTube – “EX PORN STAR TELLS THE HARDCORE TRUTH ABOUT PORN”
Uploaded January 2, 2008

“And this is how pathetic is was, I used to sell my breast milk for five and ten bucks inside guy’s coffees just to get money for me and my daughter. That’s my pathetic lifestyle in the sex industry and it’s not just me. I don’t care how glamorous these, I see the porn stars, we all had to work our way to the top. We all started out on the street or in escort agency or prostitution. We’ve all been bled upon. We’ve all been smacked around. We’ve all had guys rip condoms on us on purpose. We’ve been through hell. Vietnam Vets, could probably be comparable to what we’ve been through. That’s why we’re tough. We had to tough it out. I’ve had men try to kill me, stalk me, I was driving a motorcycle and some guy took his truck and hit me. Cuz see we’d b.s. ‘em a lot. They don’t like that. I’d have different engagement wedding rings n so I was in my pockets trying to remember which guy gave me which one.”

She states how much more dangerous the adult industry is after stating that, as a prostitute, she was bled upon, stalked, that clients tried to murder her. She repeatedly sites every porn star as being mentally ill though she does not have the education and credentials to diagnosis anyone’s medical situation. She touts only the professional ability to teach and counsel in Christian-[r]elated studies. In fact, her “degree” does not transfer to any accredited college and it is listed on the Consumer Fraud Reporting website as an unaccredited school, prefacing their list with this statement:

“All schools below are considered by the state of Oregon’s and other U.S. and international standards to be UNACCREDITED. Many are scams, a few may be decent schools, but ALL are without accreditation, something most sensible people would say is a starting point to obtain a quality education and a degree that will be broadly accepted and respected.”
So the catchphrase “Get The Facts” that is splattered all over Shelley’s personal website and Pink Cross Foundation’s website only applies to other people and not her? Really??? Someone please explain to me how that makes any sense whatsoever. Does she need the definition of the word “fact” read to her?

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/Education_Degree_Scams_Unaccreddited.php

Lovely how the reporting at Luke Is Back fails to mention how last-minute the meeting was and that the adult industry was all but squeezed out of the discussion. Thank you for actually providing some insight into this event.”

And it's only getting worse now for Ministeress Shelley....a blogger named Cameron Rowe has just opened a blog where he is currently engaging in an expose of Madame Lubben's more...shall we say, outspoken statements. His allegations include these nice tidbits: (1) that Shelley was really a madam when she turned 18 and she was pregnant through her clients rather than through porn; (2) that her degree in Christian ministry is really from a well known "diploma mill" that was so damaged that it waas banned from the state of Conneticut; and (3) that her ordination as a Christian minister is actually just as bogus, having come from an orginization (Order of St. Martin) consisting only of an Irvine, California address and nothing else.

Question for Mike Weinstein and the other folk at AHF: Do you really, really want to sully your campaign with someone like THIS???


[Note: Also crossposted over at The SmackDog Chronicles and at my new Red Garter Club 3.0 blogs]

Another HIV Porn Scare: Shall We Dance The Same Tune Again??

So, once again, we have a panic in Porn Valley.

A performer tested positive for HIV last week, and all his primary and secondary contacts are now being tested, with the results pending.

And, the usual suspects, on cue, are chirping the same tune as last year about mandating condom usage.

Unfortunately, this time around, there is a distinctly more vicious tone to the debate, because the potential "Patient Zero" just so happens to be bisexual, and has been rumored to cross over into the making of gay male porn as well.  So now, we get gay bashing on top of the ususal shit-throwing debacle.

The reactions are already fast and furious. Many performers, including some A-listers like Lisa Ann, have now instituted explicit condom-only rules for their future scenes; others (like Avy Scott) have gone further and announced that they would eschew boy/girl scenes altogether.(It should be known, though, that Avy made her decision before everything went down.)

As with last year, the debate has been reenergized over whether AIM-MED has squandered its last chance of protection and whether the government should step in and impose the Weinstein program of mandated condom usage and alternative testing. Of course, the fear that such regulation would be the final blow to porn production in California (and, to a lesser extent, Florida) due to collapse of sales already depressed due to piracy and the recession, is the gravest concern of most porn performers and producers.

On the other hand, one person's fear is another one's opportunity: and some sex-positive intellectuals and activists, as well as even a few porn pros on both sides of the camera, may see the resulting storm as a silver lining that finally liberates  porn production to become more humane and progressive.

The dilemma here, as it always has been since we have had these panics, is balancing the well-meaning aims of those who want to provide the maximum protection for performers with those who don't necessarily see condoms as the end-all cure-all for STD prevention,  and would much rather have a say in their own profession.

As for BPPA's position on this issue??  Well, it remains the same as it has been...Ernest Greene's original rebuttal to the last scare in 2009 that was posted here remains as solid today as it was then.(I will add a link to that particular post and the ensuing comment thread it instigated to the sidebar here soon for easy access.)

But the best case against simply throwing condoms around as the ultimate panacea without actually listening to those who would have to actually use them comes from none other than Nina Hartley, who posted this at her website forum in response to similar calls last year:

[...]

Since then, the usual talking heads have gotten their panties in a wad about how Porn Sets Bad Example For The Viewing Public, and Porn Is A Menace To All Who Work In It, and Those Poor Women Who End Up In Porn: What Shall We Do To Save Them?

For the best response to all of this, do a search for "the blog for pro-porn activism," and read the 5,000 word essay that Ernest so generously took the time to write. It tells it like it is much better than I can, so why duplicate work? It won't take long to read, trust me.

In a nutshell, performers as a rule don't care for condoms for several reasons. For most of the men (with few exceptions), condoms make for a very-much-more difficult scene; just one more huge distraction to add to the host of other ones on the set: uncomfortable set, no chemistry with the female player, asshole director, late/early hours, too hot/cold, bad food, personal issues, etc.

For the women, there are just four words: rubber rash/friction burn. Not only do I have to work harder for him to feel anything, the scene takes much longer to get through, with the changing out of condoms, needing to give the guy a break and suck him again, and the total passion-killer that is on-set condom use. It's hard enough to create a real connection, so the scene doesn't feel to the viewer like we faxed it in, on a set as it is. If all of our energy is focused on our working parts, there is none left over to actually connect and show a spark, which is what the people at home want to see.

There are a few men who are voluntarily condom-only and so have little trouble with them, and their work is cut by 2/3, at least.

I know it sounds harsh, but it's not porn's job to set a good example to the viewing public. It's an entertainment medium like anything else out of Hollywood, and mainstream entertainment is not held up as needing somehow to set a good example. It's a shame that our country does such a piss-poor job of educating its young people so that they're driven to view porn to try to get a clue about sex. Except when a movie is expressly done as education-the Guides, Tristan Taormino's movies, etc., their job is to arouse and entertain, period.

I hate it when those who are made uncomfortable by sex or porn project their issues onto our business.

Porn is pretty safe. If a player says "no" to the most egregiously stupid acts (cream pies, whether anal or vaginal), then he or she is unlikely to get a deadly disease at work. People do get the non-lethal ones, but they get treated, as do their partners, and they get to work again when their new test comes back clean.

Of all of the dead porn stars on the Dead Porn Star site, most have died from auto accidents.

And then, there is Belladonna, who adds her nickel's worth on the responsibility of porn performers to protect themselves:

[...]

First of all, I’d like to say that I am thankful that the adult industry has become exceptionally safer since I first started performing back in 1999. Back then, testing for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea was not required, which I found to be ridiculous since those were the most common STDs. However, I do believe that if the 30 day window were shortened to at MOST, 7 days, we could BETTER prevent the spread of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, not to mention HIV.

Since I started testing people that I have sex with 3 days prior to our engagement, it has been over 5 years since I’ve contracted Chlamydia or Gonorrhea. I knowingly caught over a handful of performers with STDs by using this rule. As a female in this industry, I can say it feels DAMN good to not have to spend every week at the doctor’s office clearing up an STD and being out of work. I feel like I’m more excited about having sex and performing, knowing that I’m going to be STD free. I also think it would be smart for new performers in the business to be required to get a full panel test, prior to performing, not only for themselves to see where they stand, but for our industry as well. I think a lot of performers get into the business and already have the herpes virus and don’t know about it and then try to blame it on the industry.

Performers in this business need to be safer when having sexual relations OUTSIDE of the industry. They need to be more responsible with safe sex because they DO know more than the average person when it comes to STDs and safe sex. If this were happening, the spread of STDs inside the business would be a fraction of what it is now. As for condoms, personally, I can only be as safe as I can be without diminishing the value of what I’m trying to accomplish. Condoms just don’t feel good to suck on, or to take in the ass, hard and fast. If I were required to use condoms, my performance would most likely suffer, and in the end I would suffer. I’m not trying to debate with anyone here, I’m just saying, if my co-workers were more responsible, we could all make some great porn and be STD free at the same time.

Now, the prevailing attitude of those wanting mandatory condom usage would probably be that women like Nina and Belladonna are merely elitists and paid shills for "the industry" who really don't give a damn about the risks of other female performers (and, if the likes of Shelley Lubben are to be believed, are in denial about the risks to themselves...as Lubben's recent crackback -- referenced here -- about Nina "being infected with chlamydia four times" in her porn career shows).

My response to that would simply be: Well...better them who have to take the risk themselves than those who simply talk about it. It's their asses and pussies and mouths that are on the line, now isn't it??

Oh...and one other thing: The only response that will be allowed here for "Patient Zero" regarding his sexual orientation is empathy and support. Those who will exploit this situation to spread unconfirmed rumors or vent their homophobia and rants about the "gay menace" simply will get no love or even bandwidth here. Until the actual test results are made public, the best thing is to wait and see, and make the necessary precautions.

Nina Hartley Layeth The Smack (And The Damn Truth) Down On Antiporn-AntiSexWork Jabronae @ Desiree Alliance 2010 Keynote Speech

I always knew there was a reason people call Nina Hartley "The Goddess of Sex." After watching this speech, they should also call her something else: "Madam Freakin' President." (OK...without the "freakin'" part.)

Last week, Nina gave the keynote address at the annual Desiree Alliance Sex Worker Conference in Las Vegas; discussing everything from the struggle to make her voice heard as a sex worker/pro-porn advocate to a thorough analysis of the forces invieghed against her and her activist sex worker associates.

I could give an analysis of the speech...but since Nina has a way of rendering analysis moot by her own eloquence and passion, I figure that reposting the speech (and the ensuing Q & A) would be more than suitable enough.

The original speech was posted by sawbuckfilms via their YouTube channel yesterday; a sincere thanks to them for giving permesion to repost it here. I have also posted the speech over at my own SmackDog Chronicles blog, too.

Adult entertainment legend/progressive sex educator Nina Hartley giving the keynote address at last week's Sex Worker Conference sponsored by the Desiree Alliance in Las Vegas (via YouTube, h/t to sawbuckfilms)

The Pink Cross Foundation: Charitable Organization?? Or: Just Shelley Lubben's Personal Ponzi Scheme??

To say that former porn starlet turned fundamentalist Christian/antiporn activist/"'ex-slut" ministress Shelley Lubben (aka "Roxy") has been on a roll of late would be an understatement; she has gotten plenty of publicity recently through her ties with the mainstream of the antiporn movement.

Lubben was one of the keynote speakers recently in a political luncheon gabfest titled "Pornography Harms" last month, and she was also one of the main speakers at the CalOSHA hearings on imposing mandatory condom requirements on the industry as a result of the "outbreak" last year. She even got some primetime publicity via an interview she did with ABC News for their Nightline news program.

Lately, though, she has had to deal with publicity that isn't quite so glowing...and may even spell real trouble for her and her "movement".

A number of active porn performers have come forth to directly question Lubben's motives in "helping women get out of the porn industry", and to counter some of her more bombastic claims about how women in porn are simply abused and "prostituted".

Monica Foster, for one, has experience in mentoring performers into and out of the industry through her GettingIntoPorn.com and GettingOutOfPorn.com websites; and she has recently been very critical of the fundamentalist Christian focus of Lubben and her PCF "ministry", as well as the lack of actual resources given to ex-performers seeking her help.  Some quotage from Foster, courtesy of her blog:

[...]

I used to admire this woman for her supposed attempts to help people, but after doing a bit of research on her, watching her interviews, and having heard about some of the realities of her organization from a few trusted friends, I'm not so certain that even she is clear as to what her true agenda is.

I think as of current that she is very self centered, immature, emotionally stunted, manipulative and on a quest of fame at the expense of hurting others and their livelihoods.

What I don't like about Lubben most of all, is that she blames everyone and everything else in life for circumstances she found herself in within life, except for herself. She seems to see the world as black and white rather than billions of shades of gray and colors.

We all have free will and we all make CHOICES in life. She CHOSE to work as a prostitute and a porn actress. No one held a gun to her head. Her career choice didn't work out for her and she chose to leave the industry completely, however that was her choice - and for her to demonize EVERYONE and EVERYTHING associated with it now is just plain wrong.

But even that is dwarfed by the campaign of another porn performer, Julie Meadows (aka Lydia Lee), whom has virturally launched a one-woman crusade to publically expose Lubben and the Pink Cross Foundation for the frauds they allegedly are. Meadows has been using both her own blog and her space on Mike South's blog to openly question both the motives and the actions of the PCF, and recently she has focused on their tax exempt status as charitable contributions.

Using the tax returns that were filed by the PCF in 2008 and 2009 -- returns that are public record and accessible to anyone thanks to disclosure regulations -- Julie and her husband Doug found countless questionable innaccuracies, inconsistencies, and questionable data that could possibly lead to genuine inquiries about the PCF's tax exempt status, let alone about whether or not they are living up to their professed goal of "helping adult performers get out of the pornography industry", or just exploiting ex-performers that much worse in order to line her pockets.

To that end, Doug and Julie created a video in which Doug documents in detail the inconsistencies and questions raised by the "tax documents", and openly wonders whether or not they are mere ruses designed to fend off more detailed auditing of their financial affairs. The video was originally posted to Julie's home blog, then to her YouTube account home page (JulieMeadowsEnt) in four parts; it is also now available over at my own personal SmackDog Chronicles blog.

I highly reccommend you watch the video (or the series) in its entirity; it is, to say the least, quite illuminating.

:

"Our Porn, Our Selves": The Beginning Of The Pro-Porn Pushback To "Stop Porn Culture"...Or Is It??

Much has been written here about the group Stop Porn Culture, and its efforts to use radical feminism as a base for its long-standing critique of porn as the ultimate danger to women.

Much has also been written here that there has been not much resistance from many progressives and sex-positive people to SPC's rhetoric.

It seems that those times are a'changing real quick.

After SPC announced that they were having their second Feminist Anti-Pornography Conference in middle July at Wheelock College (home of Gail Dines, chief propagandist for the antiporn feminist "Left"), some feminists and pro-porn women decided that enough was too much, and that there needed to be a swift response in defense of women's right to sexual media.

And one of them, sex blogger Violet Blue of Tiny Nibbles/Open Source Sex fame, decided to put talk to action. First, she decided to form a Facebook page dedicated to debunking the depth of antiporn rhetoric that SPC was shilling; and now she has created a blog to the same goals and objectives.

Both are titled "Our Porn, Our Selves", and dedicated to the legendary feminist anthem "Our Bodies, Our Selves", which served as the manifesto for women's reproductive and sexual autonomy during the 70's.

The "Our Porn, Ourselves" manifesto makes their case pretty explicit:

WE who declare that organizations such as Feminists Against Pornography do not speak for us.

WE who want the world to know that organizations such as Feminists Against Pornography do not represent feminists as a group.

WE who believe that every woman has the right and power to enjoy her sexuality as she decides.

WE who believe that to tell a woman how she may or may not enjoy her sexuality in any way is to deny that woman of her rights over her sexuality.

WE who state that any woman who attempts to control the way another woman enjoys, explores or expresses her sexuality is in fact creating a world that is harmful for all women.

WE who state that we are women, and we like pornography.

WE who state that as women, we are not harmed or threatened by the creation or viewing of pornography, and we wholly support the rights of any gender to view, create and enjoy pornography without judgment.

WE who want a world in which pornography is simply a sex toy enjoyed by all genders and sexual orientations, where women and men view porn within their own self-defined healthy sexuality, without being considered sick, twisted, wrong or mentally ill, and that men who enjoy pornography are no more likely to beat their wives, rape women or become peadophiles than anyone else in society.

WE hereby declare ourselves as adult women capable of making our own choices about our bodies and enjoyment of explicit visual stimulation for our sexual health and well-being.

WE hereby demand that our voices be heard.

The Facebook page has already in two days of existence gained over 500 followers, mostly women who are either unabashed consumers and producers of "feminist-" and "women-centered" porn or supporters of "alt[dot]porn" as well as their male allies and counterparts.

It would seem to be the breakthrough that everyone who is a sexual progressive would be cheering wildly.

So..why should there be any questions??  Why doesn't this blog, dedicated as it is to pro-porn activism (hey, it's in our freakin' TITLE!!!) not fall in head first toward Violet the Sex Blogger's crusade of resistance to the likes of Gail Dines??

Why??  Well, we can support them and cheer them on....but only from a slight distance. Here are our reasons why.

1) Violet Blue has, shall we say, a checkered history with what we call "the porn industry"...she supports wildly performers (Madison Young, Sasha Grey, Dana deArmond) who promote her own personal "sex positive" philosophy...but her attitudes towards more mainstream porn and towards those not quite behoven to her "San Francisco" values tend to range from lukewarm to outright hostile....as her continuing battles with AVN have shown.

2) Most of the supporters and biggest boosters of Our Porn, Ourselves happen to be either promoters of the kind of rebel porn (of the "porn for women" or "feminist porn" or "alt[dot]porn" variety) that was created as a counter to the supposed misogyny of "mainstream porn". That is certainly their right, and creating an alternative is certainly far better than censoring the porn they dislike....but still, it does pose a question of whether they would be willing to actively defend porn that didn't meet their exact standards.

In other words, would Violet and Ms. Naughty (another proud sponsor of this experiment) be as willing to defend as loudly the rights of more mainstream performers like Vicky Vette or Lisa Ann or Bree Olsen to make exactly the kind of porn that might squick them out???  And let us not get into Bang Bus or Anabolic or even -- gasp -- the kind of porn that folks like Ernest Greene and Renegade Evolution would call their personal pleasure??

3) And then there is the bitter taste that many performers still have against Violet the Sex Blogger for her infamous actions against the former Violet Blue the Porn Starlet (now No Name Jane) , her public breakup with Nina Hartley over philosophical differences, the feeling among some that Violet the Sex Blogger is just a bit egotisical and aims to hog the spotlight for herself. Well, that, and the popular feeling among mainstream porn performers and fans that "sex-positive" porn advocates are still just a bit too elitist and not accepting of the majority desires of most men towards the more intense and explicit content.

Also....Violet the Sex Blogger has been known to be an advocate of pilfering porn via Torrents and file-sharing, which is a major no-no for both industry producers and webmistresses/webmasters trying to make a buck and survive.

Nevertheless, in spite of all that against the messenger, the main core of the message she gives is right on point, and despite our own slight misgivings, I wholeheartedly support any effort to debunk and counter the sexual fascism of Dines and Company. Therefore, for the moment at least, count this blog in as a strong ally of their efforts....with some gritting of teeth, maybe, but an ally nevertheless.

(Of course, I speak mostly for myself here...Ernest and Ren and others may differ a bit...they can speak out here if they wish.)

How Justin Long Confronted The "Third Rail" Of Interracial Porn Racism...And Survived

There are a great many issues confronting the adult sexual media industry (or, what we call "the pornography industry") these days.

The ease of piracy through free downloading via bit torrents and "tube sites" and filesharing sites like RapidShare....though there is beginning to be a pushback on that.

The overall economic recession that is cutting in on profits.

The availability of DIY porn via camshows and personal "at home" sites, where it seems anyone with a webcam, a digital camera, and some HTML or PHP knowledge can set up their own money making venture with ease.

The threat of governmental intervention at the first sign of moral panic.

But, of all those threats, none is more intrusive and more important and potentially more destructive than an old and festering sore that on occasion threatens to explode: the subject of racism and racial discrimination within the porn industry.

The quasilegal status of porn has created plenty of subgenres where people of color can make inroads and produce explicit hardcore material for their benefit...and on occasion, there has even been attempts to create interracial porn that expresses the best of communion between different races.

Unfortunately, there has also been a history of interracial porn bringing out the worst and rankest of stereotyping for all races involved.

This is especially true of the kind of interracial porn featuring Black men and White women, which is often reduced to the basest theme of "BIG BLACK N*GGA GANGSTA/PIMP WITH HUGE D*CK ASSAULTS PURE WHITE GIRL(S)!!! This "sub-subgenre", if you will, is mostly justified as playing to the fantasies and "taboos" of their targeted audiences of older White men who still hang on tightly to the worst KKK stereotypes of Black men as wild lustful animals seeking White women for their prey.

Now, it should be said up front that this is far from the only depiction of Black men in IR porn; there are far, far more progressive and humane content which actually protrays both the Black men and their White female suitors as free and equal human beings capable of feelings and genuine empathy and healthy consensual lusts.

Problem is, though, that the former one seems to be the one that makes the most money and sells the most product when it comes to that particular subgenre...and it has many aspiring Black male performers in a particular bind of either accepting the more rancid roles and getting paid (and also getting their hands and dicks on decent looking White performers who don't mind doing Black men with their oversized endowments); or not doing so and not getting the roles that may help pay their rent.

And then, there is also the perspective of the White female performer who may, for whatever reason, be very resistant to performing with Black men.  Either they can't handle the usual size of the dick, or they are persuaded to forgo IR sex until their brand names are more well established and they can gain more economic firepower, or in the most extreme case, they really are that bigoted against Black men. Or, maybe, they just aren't into Black men and just want to stay within their own comfort zone.
In any case, all this is enough to make a Black male performer holla, so to speak...but until now, no one has been moved to action.

Until now, that is.

----------------------

Justin Long is not a particularly esteemed name in IR porn; he doesn't have his own label like Lexington Steele or Mr. Marcus or Sean Michaels or Jack Napier; or the status and reputation or a Tyler Knight or Nat Turner. He is...or was...simply a mid-level performer who did the daily grind performing plenty of IR porn scenes for plenty of labels. Yet, last week, with his announcement that he would be discontinuing doing IR porn due to what he considered to be rampant racism and discrimination against Black men overall, he has effectively opened up a Pandora's box of controversy and strong feelings about the state of the porn industry in general.

In a long essay first released to porn venues across the Internet (including AINews.com [here] and LukeIsBack.com [here]), Long explains and justifies his decision. Some sample snippage:

[....] Today I have canceled what work I had in LA and informed my agents that effective immediately, I will no longer be doing any sort of IR porn. This decision was not easy. I am not racist as I have stated and obviously could not be with a White mother and family. I will suffer from this decision no doubt, but I feel the mental anguish will be less of a burden than the financial. I feel horrible thinking that this is the only way for people to know exactly how I feel, and more over the only way for me to yell out, if you will, ''what the fuck, this is bullshit!'' Some will say, ''Well, you are being racist yourself in this decision.''

I would have to agree. It is wrong for anyone to say they won't work with someone because of skin color or nationality, however, what is a Black star to do if he/she is fed up with the racial profiling he/she has to endure everyday in this industry? This is not just about getting between a contract star's legs. This is about, the fact that every solid thing that a black star is not allowed to earn in the adult industry can be led back to three simple things; Agents telling girls ''no interracial'' or convincing them not to do IR, big companies refusing to shoot a fair percentage of content involving Black talent, and girl being given the choice of whether or not they want to choose co-talent solely on the basis of skin color or nationality.

This whole situation saddens me to no end. I am pissed off that I served in the military to protect the freedoms of the same people that would discriminate. I am pissed off that I served in the military and this is what my country does for me, i.e.: nothing, and continues to allow discrimination in my work place. So, the normal way this goes down is a girls statement, ''I don't do IR I'm sorry, it's nothing personal''. How the fuck could it not be personal when a girl tells you that she will not work with you because of the color of your skin?

Even worse it's not the color of your skin, obviously, because these same girls work with European and Latin darker-skinned male stars that are not labeled Black. The same contract and non-contract stars that say they don't do IR are still working with non-White performers. To make it worse a percentage of them are getting fucked off screen by Black males, either talent or civilian. So what really does the term IR mean? It sure in the hell doesn't mean anyone not of that girl's nationality. For example, if an Asian girl doesn't do IR, it should mean she only works with Asian male stars, right? Well, that's not the case. It means she will work with anyone that is not labeled Black by the Adult Industry.

Long sheds special bitterness towards the many White female porn performers who refuse to do IR videos for whatever reason:

Is being Black a target? Is it the kiss of death in the industry. A couple of male performers I know are Black, but very light skinned, and seem to work with these girls on a regular basis as they have not been Labled Black. Non-IR girls have no issues shooting with them, so you would think maybe it's just the color of the skin. But then you get to darker European, Asian, and Latino male talent, all of a sudden brown skin has no bearing!

So, does ''it's not personal'' continue to fly as a real statement? Absolutely not. Girls and agents like to say that saving IR extends the life of a girl's career. I have very serious doubts about that and will use a star I have worked with many times as an example. This girl has shot IR from day one in the industry, as far as I am aware. Very early in her career I had shot with her more than any male in the industry -- White, Black or other. Now she is arguably the biggest contract star in the world. So tell me exactly how did IR extend or hurt her career.

The fact is that non-IR girls use Black male talent as stepping stones and that is morally bankrupt in thought and action. Girls are permitted to do IR and then not do IR, and then start to do it again when their bookings slows down. The sad part is that Black male talent are willing to shoot with these girls which basically is telling them it's ok to exhibit this morally lacking behavior, and it's alright to disrupt our income. Black males are telling these girls that we are ok with the scraps that they are throwing our way.

The fact is that every girl that refuses to do IR is saying (regardless if they speak the words) I'm doing what's best for me and I don't care what happens to you (Mr. Black male talent). Every girl that refuses or dips in and out of doing IR effects every Black male star's annual income.

If contract stars did IR, you're damn right I and others would have more scenes because we have directors that would kill to shoot those scenes. It is the same with all non-IR shooting females. Black males have no problem if the girls are selective in their choosing of who they shoot with and who the won't shoot with. That’s fine. But to just say ''sorry your Black?'' Hello! Wake the fuck up!'' it's offensive, and then to follow it up with ''it's nothing personal,'' that just makes us even more angry because there is no way to take it but personal. The girl will take 10 cocks in a day -- in the ass, pussy, and mouth and multiple cocks at a time -- as long as none of them are Black? Come on! We are Black, not stupid!

Naturally, when you are a young Black man who decides to make a stand, you get your share of critics, and most certainly Justin Long has plenty of them. Some commentators at the Lukeisback.com thread have all but called Long out for hypocrisy in calling out White performers for not wanting to do scenes with him, while simultaneously promoting IR movies which could be construed of promoting the very same racial stereotypes that he condemned. Others have accused him of being a "reverse racist" in condemning White female performers; while still others have accused him of grandstanding for personal promotion, citing that the industry is more about making a profit than anything else.

To be fair, Long has more than held his own against his critics, and has stuck to his principles regardless of the potential consequences to his career. For that, at least, he deserves justified credit and respect.

But....the issue of interracial porn stereotyping of people of color has been sort of a dormant issue not to be raised, lest ammo is given to the likes of Gail Dines and the antipornography feminists who are most likely to raise the racism card when attacking porn for its sins of aggression against women. At a time when porn is under a great deal of assault from so many different angles (state censorship, piracy, the mandatory condom mandate, the recession), it's not at all uncommon to surpress touchy issues that may further divide and fracture fragile alliances.  Nevertheless, the underlying issue of racial discrimination in porn is pretty damn important enough, and anything that even comes close to rationalizing bigotry and inequality simply cannot be left to the Robert Jensens and Gail Dineses of the world to resolve all to themselves by wiping adult entertainment off the map.

As noted in these pages before, there most certainly is a legitimate issue with racial stereotyping in porn, and if it also is proven that porn is underpaying Black performers (and not just Black male performers, either), it could not have come at a worser time for the industry. Flipping it off as simply the fault of pursuing the mighty dollar simply won't do any more; maybe it's high time we listened to people like Justin Long (and female performers like Monica Foster and Marie Luv) and tackled the issue of racial discrimination in the porn industry as head on as porn piracy or the Weinstein/Lubben/AHCF assault on AIM's testing regimen needs to be confronted.

Above all, those who produce and consume porn absolutely must broaden their minds and their demographics to the point that they aren't merely chasing after those who have the most bucks, but actively pursuing the ultimate objective of explicit erotic media: to get people off. Regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, or personal preference. In the end, the color of the penis (or the vagina) shouldn't matter as much as the quality of the experience. Supporting those artists who wish to produce more humane, consensual, and more egalitarian porn that doesn't reduce Black people to Stephin Fechit or Pimp Daddy or Black Gangsta roles would be a nice start...you think??

Notice that I'm not calling for exclusively "politically correct" porn that only lives up to my particular values, with everything else being thrown to the depths of Hell; porn, like every other artistic medium, should be a reflection of the feelings and desires of their creators. and those desires are not or should not be reduced to political sloagans or utopias. But, it wouldn't be such a bad idea if the people who actually did the sexual labor actually had some bit of respect for each other and humankind in general, and didn't just create crappy shit just because it gets them the most bank, wouldn't it??

Either way, props to Justin Long for daring to touch that live wire, and surviving.

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[Also cross-posted over at The SmackDog Chronicles]

It's been a long time....

Obviously, I have been away...I regret that in some ways, but I have, in many ways, had a great deal of other shit to handle...

But I see how things are going in the world, and with that, something I put up over at the GER blog which I think is oh so fitting....-Ren


Ozymandias: It doesn’t take a genius to see the world has problems.

The Comedian: No, but it takes a room full of morons to think they’re small enough for you to handle.

Fitting, I think, in oh so many ways.

It’s late, or rather early, for those of you who sleep like normal human beings. For me, it is late. And as of late, as I have been sitting back, watching, reading, seeing how things are progressing in the world part of me wants to stand up and scream “No, can’t you idiots see what you’re doing?” The other part, well, the other part of me wants to sit back, light a cigarette, smile that smug, grim smile of mine and say “Well, look, you got what you wanted, your biggest wishes and dreams came true! Now there is blood running in the gutters and you are standing knee deep in it so how does it feel to try that on for size? How does it feel to know you had a hand in that?”

At this point, you might be asking what my grim, insomnia rattled self is talking about. Well, I’ll give you a hint: what I always talk about. The Sex Industry and people who think they know what is best. They do that a lot, you know…people. They, oh, envision utopias and get into causes and picture a nice pretty clean world and think they can actually pull that shit off? Clue here, people. It ain’t happenin’. Not in this lifetime or any other.

But yeah, some people are on the verge of victory, you know, getting the things they’ve always wanted? Reaching their big time goals? Anti-sex industry people should be patting themselves on the back right now. I suspect they are, actually. Countries all over the world are looking into the Nordic Plans for prostitution. Even here in the good old US of A states where prostitution was not illegal (all two of them) are moving towards laws more like those in the rest of the country. Porn? The porn industry is in serious trouble. Obscenity laws, the AIM/Cal-OSHA wars, all kinds of shit. Look, anti-industry people? You are getting just what you wanted. A crack down on selling/buying sex. Porn companies folding or in serious financial straits. You’re winning!

But, she says, lighting that cigarette and smiling that grim smile, at what price? The people you worry about the most? Claim to care about the most? The poor women, the trafficked women, the drug addicted, un-educated women? The young women, the children? Well, Ozymandias, whom do you think all of this is going to hurt the worst? Need I remind anyone that we are in a world wide mass recession? Jobs are scarce. People who were formerly middle class are now fighting to keep their jobs, their homes, and their lights on? The exact sort of conditions- poverty and desperation- that lead or force the unwilling into the sex industry in the first place? The types of things that prompt a family to sell a child into sexual slavery? The types of things that make it easy for traffickers to trick women into forced prostitution after promising them better lives in far away lands? And it is not as if our world governments have swept in to pick up the slack here, dear readers. There are no government funded, state supported, fully functional programs for former forced sexual laborers. No medical care. No educational or job training. No day-care. No living quarters. No roof over the head, three squares a day promise of a better life. The closest thing we have is…prison. So where are these most unfortunate of people to go? Just back to what they were doing, in more dangerous conditions. If you think in your pretty new world there will not be forced, coerced sexual labor then you are a fool. Ruthless people bent on profit do not let things like nice sounding laws get in the way of their businesses. The willing and the unwilling will still be fucking for money no matter what the law says. It may not be on your corners anymore, but it will still be happening, and the worst of it will be happening to the most vulnerable people of all. Your vaunted models will not end supply or demand, it will just make things uglier and worse. And if you think it will actually cut down on trafficking? Ha. I will call you either a stupid or naïve fool. And I will be right. Selling sex is illegal here in most of the USA, but it still happens every day, and in every way, 24/7-365…even on Christmas.

As for porn, do you honestly think hamstringing the legal porn industry in California will stop porn from being made? Fact here, aside from in Ca, it is illegal to make porn anywhere else in the US. Guess what? It still gets made. Tons of it. Some of it is made with Ca standards in place: legal age, testing, contracts, release forms, payment, so on, so forth. Some of it is most certainly not. And why yes, so long as there is a demand for porn (which there has been, for a long, long time) it will get made. Would you prefer the porn that is made to be made by people who abide by the Ca standard, or not? Because sure enough, so long as someone is willing to spend money to watch people fuck, someone will profit from it. It will get made, and lawlessness and disorder in porn is not a good idea at all. Proof of age, testing, contracts, release forms, payment, or…. any asshole with a drunk, drugged out person and an I-Phone? You pick. Choice two is what you are actually asking for by calling for the proverbial head of the Ca industry on a pike. You think women in porn- you know, those helpless hapless ones- are abused now? Just you wait. Only a great many of them won’t be in porn anymore then. They will find other jobs, better or worse, and no one will have any idea if the people in porn are there by choice or not…because it will be illegally made and considering that, no reason for proof of age or consent. Yet it will still be watched. There will still be a demand, and a supply to fill it.

You think these laws, these victories, will put a single dent in trafficking, or sexual labor brought on by poverty, unemployment, lack of education, or force? These huge, global problems?

Well, to you and the rest of the morons in the room…those are things you cannot fix.

Vicky Vette vs. RapidShare: A Shot In The Dark, Or A Major Blow Against Porn Piracy??

Remember when I had posted here about Vicky Vette complaining about how file-sharing venues like RapidShare were basically stealing her content and passing it on for free...and that she was considering legal action to prevent such??

Well, last week, she cashed the check, so to speak. The story courtesy of XBiz.com:

Adult Star Vicky Vette Sues RapidShare For Stealing Content

LOS ANGELES —Adult star Vicky Vette has filed a lawsuit against RapidShare A.G. claiming the company repeatedly uploaded her content and provided it free to web surfers.

Vette said she is the first major adult star to file a lawsuit against RapidShare.The suit was filed in Los Angeles County.

According to Vette's attorney, Michael Kernan, the suit centers around Vette's right of publicity. Kernan said that under California law, any actor has the right to protect their name and likeness. RapidShare, Kernan said, is illegally using Vette's likeness and content to sell memberships to its sites.

"RapidShare is trying to redefine itself as a Google, when in fact it is more like Napster and making a profit out of selling pirated content. It's downloading copyright protected material," Kernan said.

[Quote from Vicky] "The adult industry has complained bitterly about torrent sites and file sharing sites like RapidShare destroying the business, but for some reason no one has stepped up to the plate and done anything about it. Instead of whining, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and retained an attorney to sue them. I have lots of popular exclusive content like my 'Lavatory Occupied' series that is repeatedly available on RapidShare for download without my permission."

Vette said she decided to sue after repeatedly sending cease and desist letters that were ignored by RapidShare.

"RapidShare promised me they would "filter" their content, but I just found 'Lavatory Occupied'... once again... sitting on their servers and free to the world. I think it must be deliberate, or they just don't care.They seem to feel they are immune to action," Vette said.

"Anytime I mention this to other people in the business I am shocked that they shrug their shoulders and seem resigned to the stealing that is going on. Napster was forced to comply with the law after being sued. I am hoping to set an example. Just because my content is adult does not mean that it is not worthy of protection. It costs me money to make it, and it is valuable to me. Just a couple of months ago a comic book publishing consortium got an injunction for similar infringing behavior against RapidShare. I figured that it was a great time to strike," Vette said.

RapidShare's U.S. attorneys were not available for comment at press time.

In a related story, XBIZ reported today that Perfect 10, which also filed a suit against RapidShare won a motion to deny RapidShare from postponing a preliminary injunction hearing set for May 12 and moving the venue to Germany. The hearing will be heard in San Diego District Court as originally scheduled.

“RapidShare didn’t want a U.S. court to have the opportunity to hear the case," Perfect 10 owner Norm Zeda told XBIZ. "They wanted the case tried under German law."

Zada filed a preliminary injunction April 12 against RapidShare, saying the company is stealing, copying and selling his copyrighted material.

RapidShare's response in a memorandum stated that Perfect 10 has declined to provide RapidShare with the links to files it asserts are among hundreds of millions of user files on RapidShare’s site, which RapidShare would gladly remove if Perfect 10 shared this information.

According to Zada, RapidShare admits to selling the content, but not to copying it, saying the material ended up on its servers, which are located in Germany, through anonymous third parties.

RapidShare claimed it's a storage site where users can store and share files and view licensed content, including video games and movie trailers from Warner Brothers in Germany.

But Zeda argued, "They’re not a storage locker. RapidShare is the greatest infringing paysite of all time. They’re making $80 million a year that belongs to American studios and producers.”

Zada said he has lost $60 million fighting the good fight, adding the U.S. government doesn’t help the cause by not offering copyright protection.

Both Zeda and Vette said they will continue the fight.

Vette asked others in adult who think they are victims of RapidShare to email her and she will refer them to her attorney.

Now, the consensus opinion out there praises Vicky for being the first adult star to initiate such a legal action, but also gives her not much of a chance of success, and even includes a heavy risk of having to pay all of RapidShare's court costs if unsuccessful.  I'm figuring, though, that she's willing to take that risk for the basic principle of protecting her property and her interests, and standing up for performers.

It's not the first time that RapidShare has been targeted for enabling piracy; I posted earlier about the ruling that favored a group of booksellers and comic authors claiming that RS illegally violated their copyright rights by reproducing the former's content and reproducing it for free. And, as noted above, Perfect 10 has become well known for their legal challenges to companies who offer open access to file shareing, as their long-running battle against Google shows....though that one didn't quite turn out in their favor.

It should be noticed that Vette's lawsuit involves only material specifically pilfered from her own sites (the Lavatory Occupied series was an exclusive that was produced around 2006-2007 for her personal site VickyatHome.com), and not content that she produced for other companies such as Brazzers or Naughty America.

I'm guessing that the counter argument put out by RapidShare will be that they should not be held responsible or liable for the actions of their users, who upload the contents themselves for safe keeping and sharing to RS's servers; and that only the users who steal content directly from performers' sites and reproduce them as their own for free or resale should be the ones held liable. This was exactly the defense that Napster and many bit torrent sites used against legal actions against them...to varying success.

Also, it could be argued that given the ease of downloading material using instant downloader software and the fact that many uploaders and users of file-saving/file storage software get their material legally and legitimately through valid monthly memberships and simply use the storage for safe keeping rather than file sharing (not to deny in any way that more overt theft does exist), it would be well nigh impossible to prove that there is any malicious theft.  The fact that RapidShare does charge fees for storage based on length of time, and does tend to look away at the sight of covert copying of paid content, does tend to strength Vicky's case a bit.

Either way, this case is a potential game changer for both file-sharing and adult media production...and more than worth watching.  Whatever side you may be on, you gotta give Vicky Vette her just deserved credit for backing up with action her words and deeds.

Forget The Swedish Model...Iceland Goes APRF Crazy, Bans Strip Clubs

[Important update below -- scroll to bottom]

And to think that liberals and Leftists love to mock the Teabaggers for their outright looniness..we may not be able to laugh so long if this group of radfems get as much a hold of the Obama Presidency as they have apparently overtaken the ruling government of Iceland.

The story from the UK Guardian:

Iceland: the world's most feminist country

Iceland is fast becoming a world-leader in feminism. A country with a tiny population of 320,000, it is on the brink of achieving what many considered to be impossible: closing down its sex industry.

While activists in Britain battle on in an attempt to regulate lapdance clubs – the number of which has been growing at an alarming rate during the last decade – Iceland has passed a law that will result in every strip club in the country being shut down. And forget hiring a topless waitress in an attempt to get around the bar: the law, which was passed with no votes against and only two abstentions, will make it illegal for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees.

Even more impressive: the Nordic state is the first country in the world to ban stripping and lapdancing for feminist, rather than religious, reasons. Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, the politician who first proposed the ban, firmly told the national press on Wednesday: "It is not acceptable that women or people in general are a product to be sold." When I asked her if she thinks Iceland has become the greatest feminist country in the world, she replied: "It is certainly up there. Mainly as a result of the feminist groups putting pressure on parliamentarians. These women work 24 hours a day, seven days a week with their campaigns and it eventually filters down to all of society."

The news is a real boost to feminists around the world, showing us that when an entire country unites behind an idea anything can happen. And it is bound to give a shot in the arm to the feminist campaign in the UK against an industry that is both a cause and a consequence of gaping inequality between men and women.


[excerpted from full article here]

It should be noted that the author of the Guardian article that practically gushes with praise for this most wonderful "feminist" action is Julie Bindel, a long time antiporn/antiprostitution activist and a favorite within APRF circles.

Of course, my guess is that Ms. Bindel probably would get a slightly different opinion of her favored government from the women who are now unemployed or threatened with not only the loss of income, but perhaps even jail time, thanks to the enlightened leadership of such "feminism".

Or, the women who now will face the prospect of even greater risk of sexual assault or harrassment in the streets due to the closing down of safe and formerly legal venues of adult entertainment.

Or....even those who will now hang their heads in shame that the term "feminism" has been now officially hijacked and smeared through the actions of women whose only incentive is to indict, convict, and even execute men for the evil thought crime of thinking about women as free and equal sexual beings....or simply having erections. (Would Ms. Bindel be so exercised about the supposedly boorish behavior of gay men towards each other??  Or, do they need to have gay bars and other potential places of hooking up closed down, too, just to satisfy her (and the Icelander government's) newly created fear of male erect penii???)

Also...I'd wonder how many of the votes for this strip club ban came from right-wing fundamentalist conservatives who share Ms. Bindel's concerns, yet from a more "religious" perspective of "immorality":rather than the cover of "protecting women" from the evil male gaze?? Of course, no feminist worth her title would EVER ally themselves with such right-wing people to pass legislation....no, ma'am, only those evil pro-porn rapist MEN would portray them as conservatives out to use the State to regulate sexual choices!!!

Unfortunately, in the bizarro world of "left" antipornradicalfeminism, which seems to be taking over whatever's left of "the Left" in Europe, everything old is new again. Rumors of MacDworkinism's death appear to be badly mistaken and unfounded.

And if we're not too careful and don't start fighting hard, we'll have to face this shit here within our own borders. Remember, Cass Sustein could very well be our next Supreme Court Justice....Glenn Beck's ravings notwithstanding.

Update by Anthony (4-1-10):  As noted in my latest comment, I have gone ahead and closed comments for this entry, for the purpose of not extending the drama any further.  I have gone ahead and crossposted this entry over to my SmackDog Chronicles blog. All who had participated in the debate here are more than welcome to move over there and continue the discussion; I will be in a better position to respond to critics there.

Here's the link:

Forget The Swedish Model...Iceland Goes APRF Crazy And Bans Strip Clubs (The Remixed Version) -- The SmackDog Chronicles

Feel free to go there and fire away.